Various traffic signs and roadway barriers exist that warn motorists of approaching traffic conditions. For example, reflective traffic barrels, A-frames, and other various traffic devices may be deployed to warn drivers of various traffic hazards. Larger display signs may also be employed to display messages to motorists regarding approaching traffic hazards.
While these devices may provide visual alerts, they are typically cumbersome and require great effort to set up, making them less suitable for instances where rapid deployment of a visual barrier is desired, such as deployment by police or other emergency vehicles, or roadside work crews. Further, these devices are only designed to continuously warn approaching motorists and are not designed to warn any person standing near the device of an approaching traffic hazard, such as a vehicle entering into a hazardous area.
Other driver alert systems exist for warning drivers that a dangerous condition exists. For example, various vehicle systems detect a speed and path of vehicles surrounding a moving vehicle along with lane lines and other surrounding elements to warn a driver that a dangerous condition exists. However, these systems are active in moving vehicles, and no such system exists to alert an approaching vehicle may pose a hazard to a stationary vehicle or area adjacent a roadway.
Attempts have been made to combine traffic barriers with an alert system for persons located within a hazard zone. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,230,546 describes an apparatus for generating an alert when incursion into a work zone occurs. However, this system requires that barriers be set up at various distances away from a hazard zone and only provides an alert once an incursion into that zone has been detected. Additionally, frequent false alarms may result from the general detection of a vehicle incursion into a safety zone without determining a speed and direction of the vehicle to evaluate whether that vehicle poses a potential hazard. Other attempts have been made to create alert systems, however, none are capable of evaluating information related to an approaching vehicle and determining whether a hazardous situation exists.
What is needed, therefore, is a roadway barrier that is rapidly deployable and provides a combination of a visual reflective surface with LED directional control, to visually alert oncoming motorists, and an audible alert function to warn a person in proximity to the roadway barrier of an unsafe traffic condition.